Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Lindy's Shetalnd Fleece

We had a great time Friday last with Joan, Jennifer, Richard, George and Lindy. We stuffed ourselves as usual. The boys loved making a felted Lions Head with the gorgeous felting materials Lindy brought along. She also brought along some Shetland Sheep's fleece which had been residing with her for 14 years. I think it was a first-shear as it is pretty uniform staple, soft and has delicate pointed tips. ('twould be an old sheep by now!). Anyway, we watched the beginning of Margaret Stove's video on spinning merino for lace where she washes the locks individually. I decided to give this fleece that royal treatment and it seems to be working well.

This lot was done in about 10 - 15 minutes. Should be able to do about 2 per minute if there is plenty of water on the boil. It dried on a mesh on the hot press shelf in about 6 hours. I've spun some already and had to add foam pipe lagging to the spindle to get the tension low enough but it seems doable as a fine 2 or 3 ply without getting too firm.

Paul off work for a few days so we visited Clonmacnoise one day and the Locks Distillery today.
To be continued when photos from phone arrive.
OĆ­che mhaith.


Friday, August 19, 2011

Jute rug commences

I may be mad since I want to use some jute string I got in Fairfield mill this summer.
I've slayed the 7.5 dent heddle for the full 20" and made the warps about 60" long, planning for a 50" long rug.
The idea is to use my hand-spun yarn for the weft - doubled in some places. I've chosen the seaweed/dundukedymuck stuff - which I've developed an unexpected appreciation for.
 So far, I've skinned only one finger while I fiddle around sampling to see what might work - loops - NO, too unstable, probably will go for areas of plain weave with the jute weft showing among  rows of Soumak weaving. This might be a reaction to the somewhat tedious weaving of the soft-spun Wensleydale runner which needed handling with Kid gloves but was extremely soft on the hands. This still needs some edging - probably a chain or two of crochet and something done with the fringe plus matching place mats are in progerss.
jute warp
seaweed and ddm for rug1

wensleydale table runner 2

wensleydale table runner1

weansleydale TR Danish medallion









Sunday, August 14, 2011

A little bit of lace

A small ball of unwashed lace weight yarn knit nicely into this bit of vine lace:
I love the vine pattern.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Dying Disasters

First, the bleeding chrysanthemum:
 Bought 2 X 50 gm hanks of this BFL. Spun and chain-plied the first hank then - when I went to set the twist, it bled and bled .... Added vinegar to soak - bled and bled. Added washing up liquid - seemed to clear the orangie dye but next rinse, mauve bleed, now more orangie bleed....10 rinses later.....GRRRR.


Next - Seaweed and Dunduckedymuck:

Have two hanks of thick 2-plied hand spun in several shades of blue and a pink. The pink began to get on my nerves so I thought "Over-dye it with a yellow - change the blues to shades of greena dna the pink to brownis green - got the above 2 hanks. Very, earthy - very, very earthy.


Leaning, learning.